Improve Communication and Share Information Across Distributed Teams: Lync 2010 Group Chat allows users to participate in ongoing discussions on topics of shared interest. The history of the conversation is maintained, so that teams in different locations and departments can review discussions even when users are online at different times. Group Chat enhances communication and allows geographically distributed teams to work together efficiently. Group Chat is delivered through a client specialized for group conversations that shares the same identity and presence information of Lync Server 2010. Users can see members who are currently online in any chat room along with their presence status and right click to initiate a 1-on-1 conversation with them. Through Lync Server 2010 federation capabilities, you can also set up federated chat rooms so business partners, customers, and vendors can participate in shared group discussions.

Broaden Information Awareness: Lync 2010 Group Chat supports many types of content so that you can share the right information with the right colleagues easily. Documents and links can be included within discussions for easy access to topic-related materials. Group Chat discussion archives serve as a powerful knowledge management tool for your organization. When users post questions, everyone who is currently part of the discussion can benefit from the responses of subject matter experts. Anyone who later joins the discussion also benefits from reviewing the archives, so Group Chat is an important resource for the entire team.

Manage Information Inflow: The built-in features of Group Chat enable users who frequently participate to stay current with content that they really care about. Users can customize how they are alerted to new posts. They can choose to receive minimal interruptions by having unread message counts displayed in the chat room panel, or they can choose to be notified of content by flashing taskbar, sounds, or a window that comes to the forefront of the screen. Notification preferences can be set as default or customized for each chat room. User-defined filters allow the user to choose criteria, such as combinations of keywords or messages from specific people, and be actively alerted when those messages are posted.